"The B * * is _right_,--I ought to have mentioned her _humour_ and _amiability_, but I thought at her _sixty_, beauty would be most agreeable or least likely. However, it shall be rectified in a new edition; and if any of the parties have either looks or qualities which they wish to be noticed, let me have a minute of them. I have no private nor personal dislike to _Venice_, rather the contrary, but I merely speak of what is the subject of all remarks and all writers upon her present state. Let me hear from you before you start. "Believe me, ever, &c. "P.S. Did you receive two letters of Douglas Kinnaird's in an endorse from me? Remember me to Mengaldo, Soranzo, and all who care that I should remember them. The letter alluded to in the enclosed, 'to the _Cardinal_,' was in answer to some queries of the government, about a poor devil of a Neapolitan, arrested at Sinigaglia on suspicion, who came to beg of me here; being without breeches, and consequently without pockets for halfpence, I relieved and forwarded him to his country, and they arrested him at Pesaro on suspicion, and have since interrogated me (civilly and politely, however,) about him. I sent them the poor man's petition, and such information as I had about him, which I trust will get him out again, that is to say, if they give him a fair hearing. "I _am_ content with the article. Pray, did you receive, some posts ago, Moore's lines which I enclosed to you, written at Paris?" * * * * * LETTER 434. TO MR. MOORE. "Ravenna, June 4. 1821. "You have not written lately, as is the usual custom with literary gentlemen, to console their friends with their observations in cases of magnitude. I do not know whether I sent you my 'Elegy on the _recovery_ of Lady * *:'-- "Behold the blessings of a lucky lot-- My play is damn'd, and Lady * * _not_. "The papers (and perhaps your letters) will have put you in possession of Muster Elliston's dramatic behaviour. It is to be presumed that the play was _fitted_ for the stage by Mr. Dibdin, who is the tailor upon such occasions, and will have taken measure with his usual accuracy. I hear that it is still continued to be performed--a piece of obstinacy for which it is some consolation to think that the discourteous histrio will be out of pocket. "You will be surprised to hear that I have finished another tragedy in _five_ acts, observing all the unities strictly. It is called 'Sardanapalus,' and was sent by last post to England. It is _not for_ the stage, any more than the other was intended for it--and I shall take better care _this_ time that they don't get hold on't.